Quote:
Originally Posted by Madelaine Amee
Off topic ........... but, does anyone remember Marylu Henner from the TV show Taxi? She is extremely interesting she says: “What I have is known as Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory. It’s like a fancy name,” she says, laughing. “They don’t call it hyperthymesia anymore because that sounded like a disease.”
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A tad more off-topic.
Because of his almost supernatural ability to recall
everything from about the age of 1-1/2 on, I had my oldest tested...when he was about 12 (he, of course, could tell me the exact day...lol).
While he didn't meet the threshold of the very rare condition of
'hyperthymesia,' the doctor did kiddingly mention that we may want to avoid arguing with him as to dates/places/events that he's experienced...because we would most likely lose.
We in the family, lovingly call him
"our family historian"...who doesn't need a diary to remind him of things.
He was also diagnosed as dyslexic in grade school and struggled with certain things.
The doctor suggested that he developed his highly advanced memory from concentrating on listening to others (mostly quietly hiding in the corner, listening to adults...while the rest of the kids were playing with toys in another room)...so that he could verbalize instead of writing (he had/has pretty bad writing). Buying him a laptop computer when he was in 8th grade, when the cheapest good ones were about $2,500 and up...made a huge difference.
We were fortunate in that before he got his computer, most of his teachers accommodated him and allowed him to verbally perform things like book reports...instead of writing them out by hand.
I guess the moral of the story is, if you have a child/grandchild who seems to do poorly in school and/or handwriting, but otherwise exhibits a very high vocabulary, memory and intelligence/emotional IQ...they well could be dyslexic (or have another condition) and just need accommodations to
excel.
Which, in the field he's chosen as a 38 year old adult...he is now doing.
